Manipulative Marketing

When people want to sell us their goods, the prevailing approach is to sell by any means necessary—usually through manipulations. And some people don’t even see what’s wrong with that.

A marketing manipulation might look like an announcement that “Only 5 spots left!” when there’s really no such limit. Another form of manipulation is calling a heavily processed snack that’s loaded with sugar a “health bar”.

Honestly, that’s no better than stealing; in fact, it might be even worse, because it leads people to take actions they never wanted to take. It’s like black magic—it robs people of their freedom of choice.

But we don’t have to market this way.

Ethical Marketing

I see marketing as helping people reach a service that’s genuinely good for them, and helping the service provider connect with the people they can truly serve.

Honest, respectful marketing can be no less successful than manipulative marketing. If there’s a good product, a clearly defined target audience, the marketing materials show why this product should suit that audience in a way that addresses their pain points—then there will be sales.

If we skip one of these steps, no sales will come. Then we might jump to the conclusion that we need to use manipulations, when in reality we just need to refine one of those steps.

Of course, every approach has its strengths and weaknesses. So at the end of the day, I ask myself: “What kind of world would I like to live in?” And the answer that comes up inside me guides me to the marketing approach that feels right.

Anecdote

By the way, I stole the title of this post from the successful-yet-entirely-fictional businessman, Gil Samama.

I’ll explain: I consulted Bing (which uses the ChatGPT4 AI model) when I wrote the post, because I wanted examples of ethical marketing. We had an interesting discussion, and in the end it recommended a fascinating book by Gil Samama. A quick Google search (take that, Bing!) revealed that both the book and its author don’t actually exist.